


almond blossoms (by van gogh)

by spookysp_ace (summermoonsdawn)



Series: kurodai mid-birthday week 2019 - (fuck yeah kurodai) [2]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Day 2 - college au, KuroDai Week 2019, M/M, and kuroo loves daichi so much okay, but it's really just cute, but the universe is like "bro be patient", is a companion piece to "starry night (in your eyes)", kuroo is a fucking sap, kuroo just really wants to confess okay, kuroo: 1, smallest bits of angst, universe: 0
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-13
Updated: 2019-12-13
Packaged: 2021-02-26 00:07:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,705
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21774175
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/summermoonsdawn/pseuds/spookysp_ace
Summary: Four times he's tried to confess, and each time his words were taken away by the universe.The fifth time. He has to do it, or he won't get the courage to do it again.
Relationships: Kuroo Tetsurou/Sawamura Daichi
Series: kurodai mid-birthday week 2019 - (fuck yeah kurodai) [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1567954
Comments: 9
Kudos: 100





	almond blossoms (by van gogh)

**Author's Note:**

> hey fam!! finally, finally finished kurodai mid-bday week day 2. i know i'm a couple days behind but each piece has gotten uh....a little out of hand.
> 
> note that this one is *technically* the companion piece to an iwaaka i have written, but i don't believe it's necessary you read that one? you might enjoy it though because some characters are encouraging kuroo to confess to daichi and stuff..... so you know. i would have had this done earlier but i didn't want to disappoint for those who read the previous one and stuff.
> 
> this took a wide turn from where it started, and for that i'm thankful.
> 
> PLEASE PLEASE LISTEN TO "TEN FEET TALL" BY WRABEL. there's another version with Afrojack, but the Wrabel-only version is the one i listened to none stop–that's where the song inspo comes form.
> 
> sorry for any mistakes!! happy kurodai week :)) enjoy!
> 
> (thank you again eli for all your help. without you i wouldn't have posted my first work. thank you.)

kurodai mid-birthday week, day 2:

**~~secret identity~~ | ~~sci-fi au~~ | college au**

_“Almonds are sensitive souls, and are fussy about their growing conditions, which unfortunately means they can be about as challenging to grow as they are delicious.”_

* * *

Kuroo had tried to confess to Daichi a total of four times in the several years that they’d known each other. You’d think at this rate that Kuroo would have stopped—or maybe not. 

He had just left from meeting with Bokuto at the library as they talked with Akaashi. Both of them were so confident in his ability to confess, to say the words he’s been trying to say for almost four years now. But every single time he opened his mouth–and he wasn’t lying about that–something brought Daichi and him back to the same standstill they’d been at. An impasse with the end so close in sight just to be snatched away from their hands, sucked dry each time.

“He seems incredibly resilient,” Akaashi had said the other night, “and I know you are as well.”

Kuroo shook his head, standing and waiting at the train station. Daichi was already in Tokyo but was visiting his cousin Eijun before taking the train to meet with Kuroo. And by the time on his phone, he probably had 10 or so minutes before Daichi showed up.

_I'm clumsy_  
_And my head's a mess_  
_'Cause you got me growing taller everyday_  
_We're giants in a little man's world_  
_My heart is pumping up so big that it could burst_

  
(1)

The first time Kuroo had tried to confess, or even thought about how far his affection for the rival captain went, they were in high-school. Nationals, the night of Nekoma’s loss, tired from the games played earlier, but the evening was warm and Daichi had asked him to meet outside the hotel Karasuno was staying in.

Kuroo thought about it now and how they had been a couple centimeters shorter, and a little more gangly and less filled out, but still a part of they were now.

Kuroo had walked down the street and could see Daichi from a distance. He was sitting on a bench, under a streetlight, wearing a loose white shirt and track pants. His hair had been shorter, facial features edging on adulthood but not quite there, cheeks still full.

He knew they probably didn’t have that much time to talk. Not when Karasuno still had games to play the next day, bright and early, and their coach wanted them in bed soon but Kuroo really couldn’t wait. Not when Daichi was so close, and when would he be back in Tokyo? A few weeks? Months? When would they get to see each other again?

“Sa’amura-san,” he drawled, stepping closer to the bench. Daichi looked up at him, eyes attentive and thoughtful. Is that how he always looked at people? Steady, with strength not just in his muscles but ingrained into his very being?

Flashes of the game from early danced in his mind, the ball going back and forth from one court to the other, refusing to drop. And Daichi, strong and true like a protector or knight for the volleyball court, and for the team, there in the middle. Arms set together stopping a tumbling ball, and legs rooted to the floor under the guidance of powerful thighs.

“You know. You can call me Daichi,” the mentioned man said, head turned up to one of the flickering street lights in front of their hotel.

_Daichi, Daichi, Dai—_

“Sa’amura-san sounds so nice though, don’t you think?” Kuroo asked. He joined the other man on the bench, allowing his form to sink into the seat. His head lulled on the back of the bench to turn towards Daichi’s profile. Strong jaw, dark hair, and even under the nightlights his eyes were still shadowed. The teenager looked tired then, not impossible after playing three games in one day and having to lead such a rambunctious team but this sort of exhaustion looked bone deep, weary—

But it was gone in a second, smile taking over his young features, eyes crinkling on the sides as he turned his head towards Kuroo. “Am I that special Kuroo-san?” 

_Always, always, always. Since the first time you took my hand–_

There was something in Daichi’s eyes, edging Kuroo to say the words that desperately tickled his tongue, wanting to escape both his thoughts and the pressure clutching his chest. 

Kuroo tried to grapple it. He tried to wrangle in his faster beating heart, hoping that it couldn’t be heard over the sound of the nightlife passing them by. The rush behind his ears was growing louder like an ocean, begging and pulling, like the tide and the moon. Say it, say it, all of him pushed. More than the _good game Sawamura._ And the _you're a good captain–_

“It’s a title just for you,” Kuroo said instead.

Daichi huffed a small breath, a little laughter. “You’re weird cat, aren’t you?”

“All cats are a little strange. And I have a reputation to uphold.”

“Oh really? What’s that?” Daichi asked, a wicked glint in his eyes. “One of provocation and foolery?”

“Hey now, my foolery is all a part of my roguish charm,” he said with a wink sent in Daichi’s way.

Daichi laughed again, smile widening, eyes never dimming. “Whatever you need to say to help you sleep at night.”

Kuroo joined his laughter, sitting up a little more. “I don’t care what anyone says, but you’re not as innocent as most think.”

“When did I ever claim to be innocent?” Pink lips pulled over wide white teeth, and there, he could see the one tooth that had fallen out towards the back. And this close he could even see the faint scar on his cheek from the collide with his teammate. He really, kind of, just a little, wanted to run his thumb over it.

“No you didn’t. Did that hurt?”

“Huh?”

“The crash, the scar,” Kuroo pointed and raised a finger to hang just a hair above the scar. Daichi’s breath ran over his palm and arm causing a shiver to run down Kuroo’s spine.

Daichi looked thoughtful, but turned his eyes away. “It hurt more not being on the court.”

  
Kuroo pulled his hand away, but stayed close, head near enough to take in Daichi’s scent. He’d already bathed or showered and smelled of a soft soap with maybe a little spiced vanilla in it.

“Sawamura, what do you think–” Kuroo started but was cut off by a nearby voice.

“Captain!”

Kuroo and Daichi both turned to the doors of the hotel, seeing Hinata standing there, like he was a little nervous. Daichi blinked at the first-year, “Is everything okay?”

“Coach asked that we all meet, and said to stop conspiring with the enemy!”

Kuroo groaned, “Am I the enemy still? Even after defeat?”

Daichi stood up, reaching his hand out to Kuroo. He contemplated it for a moment, before taking the rough but warm hand in his own, to be pulled up.

The Karasuno captain was smiling at Kuroo, but he looked as if he was rolling something around in his mouth but decided better of it as he looked back to Hinata. 

“Okay, okay, we’ll see you tomorrow Kuroo,” Daichi said, pushing his hands into his pockets. “Let’s go Hinata. And where are your shoes? You’re going to get sick out here–”

_Been trying so hard not to let it show_  
_But you got me feeling like_  
_I'm stepping on buildings, cars and boats_  
_I swear I could touch the sky_

(2)

Kuroo had succumbed into their friendship a long time ago, and after nationals their conversations were back and forth each day over the phone. He couldn’t help himself–friendship with Daichi, easy banter, was addicting and sent a rush to his head every time.

So there he was, in Miyagi, the summer before college classes started. Daichi had invited Kuroo to visit, to meet his two younger siblings and grandmother, to join his previous team members. They’re walking together back from the convenience store down the street from Daichi’s home, and it’s early morning but the summer sun is already in full force. Daichi is donning a deep tan from helping his grandmother with her garden behind the house, and from going to the pool with the young twins Asumi and Ryuki.

They're in the midst of a companionable silence, and it’s quiet down the street, and all around. The Miyagi rural sounds were different from the sounds out-skirting Tokyo, and maybe that was just because he was far away from familiar concrete streets; but it was nice, peaceful. A cloud danced across the sky in front of the sun giving them a blessed moment of shade.

“Actually, ah, Sa’amura,” Kuroo started, clearing his throat. They were coming to a bridge crossing a river, slow water swimming underneath them. “There’s something I want to talk about.”

Daichi stopped with him on the bridge, overlooking the small river, between where they had been and where they were going. He turned towards him, face open and curious.

“What is it?” He asked, voice low and carrying with the summer wind.

“Well,” Kuroo took a steadying breath, “There’s something I’ve been meaning to say for a while, and I’m not sure how to say it.” 

“Is everything okay?”

“Yes! Everything’s fine, well, perfect, just uh…”

_You make my heart squeeze anytime I see you or hear your voice?_

“I just,” and he swallowed the ball in his throat, took another breath, “I really like–”

The shrill ring of a phone pierced the air between then, and Daichi immediately turned to his phone, where an unknown number had popped up.

“Ah, hold on,” Daichi said and then answered the phone with eyes narrowed. “Hello?”

Several things passed on Daichi’s features as he listened to the person on the other line. He looked like a crow who had been flying for hours and days, one who’d decided to take a rest, but one whose flock had disappeared with no chance of coming back; like the rest he had intended on taking meant he would never fly again. His eyes fell, narrowed to the ground, mouth pulled into a tight line, and when he spoke his voice was tight with restrained emotion.

“Which hospital?”

It was a rush after that. The hospital had called and said they had admitted Daichi’s grandmother because she fell while she was out with one of her neighbors. The two of them arrived at the hospital after picking up the twins from the house, and after catching a bus. 

But they ran in, to the front desk where they pointed to the room of Nana Sawamura. She was laying in bed, and smiled at their entrance. 

Daichi pulled a chair close to her bedside, giving a large sigh, “Nana, you really can’t be doing the things you used to.”

Nana turned her nose away, “I can do whatever I damn well please.”

“Nana, really, please–”

“Now you listen here Daichi, everything will be okay. Understand?” She gave him a stern look, made less imposing by the sterile white and beeping of the heart monitor. “This doesn’t change anything.”

Daichi didn’t say anything as he sat in a chair sitting next to her. Her hand holding onto Daichi’s own was a tight grip. “It’s just a broken leg, I’ll be back on my feet soon, don’t you worry my little almond blossom. The girls and you take good care of me.”

The doctor nearby cleared their throat, “This could take several weeks or several months to heal. Your grandmother’s leg will always be weak after this, but we’re going to do the best we gain to regain and keep the muscle strength that’s there. She’s going to need someone to help her at home, and to get around. We will be looking at the x-rays, but it is likely a closed or incomplete fracture–”

The doctor continued but Kuroo watched Daichi and the passing of several emotions across his face–worry, distress, and tight-lipped resolve.

“I’ll call your brother and let him know what’s going on,” Daichi said, referring to his great-uncle who lived in Nagano. He stood up, and after squeezing his grandmother’s hand, he walked out the door. Ryuki and Asumi watched after him as they stood on the other side of Nana’s bed.

“Check on him, would you dear?” Nana asked Kuroo. 

Kuroo happily complied, leaving the doctor, the twins and Nana watching him rush out the door. The door closed behind him, and he caught Daichi walking down the hall, phone pressed to his ear

Daichi’s voice was low, and he was rubbing his hand across his face as he spoke into the phone. His face was pinched in a way he wouldn’t have allowed around Nana. He paced further down the hall until he took a seat on one of the furthest benches. He only spoke on the phone for a couple more minutes before shoving it into his pockets, and then sinking into the bench.

Kuroo took long steps up to him, opening his mouth to say some sort of comfort, but feeling like a fish out of water. He gulped and took a breath, lungs feeling tight.

“She’s all we have left,” Daichi started, eyes cast down to his lap. “She’s all we have left and she said it didn’t, that it doesn’t change anything but it does, it does and _fuck_ –” Daichi lowered his face into his hands, shoulders beginning to shake. His words began to muffle behind his wet tears and Kuroo he–

–was frustrated, and damn pissed off because _damn you Universe. Fuck you for doing this to him._

He immediately kneeled in front of him, between Daichi’s legs. The shorter man allowed him, leaning into his body and placing his head on Kuroo’s shoulder, where tears dripped through his shirt. Kuroo held as tight as could onto the man, arms around his waist as his drooping shoulders and stiff muscles continued to shake. 

_I'll be careful_  
_So don't be afraid_  
_You're safe here_  
_No these arms won't let you break_  
_I'll put up a sign in the clouds_  
_So they all know that we ain't ever coming down_

  
(3)

After Daichi’s grandmother had been hospitalized, he’d decided to go to Yamagata University. He’d been given a full scholarship for the program, and it was close enough to Miyagi that Daichi could go back and help with his grandmother if she needed it, or if the twins needed him for any reason.

It was made that simple, at least at the time.

But almost a year later, at the end of their first year of university, they’re skyping, talking about final exams when Daichi informed him that he had also been accepted into Tokyo University. And though it had been on partial scholarship, they’d had a great science program as well. They’re kilometers apart 

“And I _wanted_ to Kuroo. I was going to say yes but–”

“What?” Kuroo asked, dumbfounded.

Daichi, looking at him through a computer screen, eyes tired from boring into his chemistry and biology notes, gaze not quite bashful. He rubbed at the back of his neck and fiddled with a pen in his other hand. 

“Yeah. And that day Nana was taken into the hospital, I was going to let you know but everything was so busy after that. ”

“Is that what—“

“I know, I should have told you, and I’m sorry but–”

“Sawamura.”

Daichi stopped, lifting his eyes to the screen. It was one of the few times where Kuroo could say Daichi looked _small,_ ashamed, regret covering the warmth that was always in his eyes.

“Is that why you said things were going to change?”

Daichi nodded. 

Kuroo really didn’t know what to say, coming up blank on thoughts. Sure, he had hoped that Daichi had applied for Tokyo University but they hadn’t really talked about where in the months before going to school. It was all the “I’m going to be a chemist” and “Well I want to do research for seals,” and wanting to keep the friendship they’d started alive and burning. 

_You could have been here?_

And Kuroo knew, he did, that maybe it was better for Daichi’s grandmother, and his younger twin sisters, but his heart began to ache for all the things they could have had there, together. Maybe being on the same volleyball team, or playing outside of class, and movies on the weekends, talking to each other as they walked to class. Or during class. They may have been able to have classes together with all the sciences that Daichi was taking for marine biology. Kuroo didn’t realize how much he had wanted to be late to classes together, go to coffee shops, and hold the other’s hand while it was cold outside; or how much he desperately wanted to hug all of the sadness out of the other’s body.

How he wanted the regret in Daichi’s eyes to disappear.

“You don’t need to be sorry,” Kuroo said. “My presence everyday would have been overwhelming for such a short man.”

The reaction to his statement was immediate. Daichi’s eyes lit up, overshadowing the dark circles.

“I’ll show you short, you slinky–”

  
_Been trying so hard not to let it show_  
_But you got me feeling like_  
_I'm stepping on buildings, cars and boats_  
_I swear I could touch the sky_

(4)

The fourth time, and the most recent, was when Kuroo went and spent some of the summer break in Miyagi with Daichi’s family-consisting of his grandmother, and two younger twin siblings. It was hard to turn down Daichi when he asked, and he didn’t want to. 

“Tetsurou-kun! I tell Daichi all the time to bring you more often! School cannot be more important than your own grandmother,” she called as she descended the steps of her home upon arrival. She’d started after him, saying that Kuroo didn’t eat enough, and that he needed more muscle on his bones if he wanted to ever keep warm during the Miyagi winters. 

They had been there for several days already, braving against the unrelenting heat outside. The twins, Ryuki and Asumi had taken to climbing the tree outside. By now they were both almost eleven years old, but seemed much like their older brother wanting to stand under the sun no matter the heat

_“You’re just jealous because you burn easy,” Daichi had said the day before._

_“Look here, we can’t all tan as easily as you,” he’d replied easily, looking over Daichi’s bare arms, taking in all of the sun’s rays while he had gladly stood under the shade of the back porch._

_Daichi had sent him a teasing smile, “Right, it’d be too unfair of the world.”_

That day though, Daichi was outside running after the twins with the water hose and spraying them as they tried to hide amongst the leaves in the tree. Daichi’s grandmother, Nana, had requested Kuroo help her make dinner that evening–kinpira with carrots and lotus roots, with some mackerel.

_“Nana loves you more than me now,” Daichi claimed as they’d walked through the grocery store. His Nana turned around and sent a glare to Daichi. “You better not be mean to Tetsurou-kun, Daichi.”_

_“I’d never Nana.”_

_“No, no,” Kuroo interjected, “He was being very mean Nana.”_

_“Sawamura Daichi, did I not raise you better–” and had thus sent Nana into a fit for Daichi to “take better care of dear Tetsurou-kun.”_

Daichi’s grandmother was looking amazing and much better than the last time he’d seen her, when she was still healing from her broken leg. She was still hobbling around, but she defied everything the doctor said and had healed quicker than most her age. Her long grey hair was pulled back, but her warm eyes were the exact replica of Daichi’s in all their cocoa shades and fierceness. 

“I call Daichi my little almond blossom, do you want to know why Tetsurou?” The woman asked as she chopped at some carrots on the counter. Outside Kuroo could hear the twins running around, squealing, and Daichi calling after them, laughter in their voices.

He hummed, taking another carrot and cutting at it. “Why is that?”

“We don’t grow almonds here. They don’t like to grow in this soil, and are very picky about where they will grow, and where they’ll grow well,” she took a breath, brown eyes gazing out the window to the yard where one of the twins had climbed onto Daichi’s back, and the other had taken hold of the water hose and was trying to spray Daichi down. Kuroo could see the laughter on their faces, free from any worries the world wanted to give them. 

“Almond trees are challenging to grow,” she continued, looking back down at the sliced cucumber. “Stubborn, stubborn, but delicious in the end, if correctly taken care of.”

Kuroo had stopped his own chopping, working his tongue around in his mouth, wishing he could say something, anything and everything. He gazed out the window where Daichi was in view, watching as he slipped on wet grass, white shirt turning grass stained and dirty. The girls began to laugh after him.

“Daichi is exactly like that Tetsurou-kun. After their father died, their mother nowhere around, he was left not only with Ryuki and Asumi, but me. I’m old, I knew that then and I know that now. Taking care of all of us made him grow up very quickly, and I’m sure you know that by now, but he doesn’t like to put himself before anyone else. To cause anyone else trouble, if not out of tough love, would be unbearable.”

That was an understatement. Daichi had taken care of a whole flock of crows, and almost always was the one leaned on by their close friends. He did almost everything he could for their friends without ever asking for anything in return but Kuroo had seen how those broad shoulders sagged when someone had turned away, or the growing exhaustion in his system.

“You, Tetsurou, put a wonder in his eyes,” she said, gentle smile on her features. “I’ve never seen him smile like he does around you when he’s around anyone else. It’s like all the childhood wonder he’d missed out on comes back. That challenging little almond blossom starts to bloom again, reaching for the sun. I suggest that you say whatever you want to say to him, and please keep that smile on his face. You’re a sweet boy, and the laughter the two of you produce is one of the most beautiful sounds I’ve ever heard.”

Kuroo wanted to, he wanted to so desperately but what if, what if—

And risk changing all they’d had?

“You don’t want to go your whole life wondering, Tetsurou.”

He looked down at her, peering through the fringe of his hair. She reached up with a withering hand, and patted his cheek. “Why don’t you go outside dear? Daichi’s right, you do need a little sun.”

“Aw, Nana, I truly am your favorite.”

“Don’t tell the other’s that, now hurry along. Go, go,” she said, waving him out of the kitchen.

Kuroo walked outside and he came upon Daichi, bare chested, wringing out his t-shirt. The girls were nowhere insight, probably planning for another attack.

Daichi’s back was facing him, water falling down sculpted muscles and tanned skin. His waist was lean giving frame to the rest of the skin and towards his hips. His shorts were clinging below his hips, holding onto his skin like a lifeline and Kuroo wanted to fucking pass out.

 _Someone please take me out,_ he thought, clutching his chest. _Summer is too much for my fragile heart._

“You just gonna stand there?” Daichi called, looking over his shoulder.

“Thought I’d just admire the view,” he said before his brain-to-mouth filter could stop him.

 _What fucking filter?_ Akaashi’s voice said in the back of his head.

Daichi raised his eyebrows, “Were you now?”

“Well, you know, the sun and everything looks so different here in Miyagi.”

Dark eyebrows raised even higher, small smile on his face now, “The sun, huh?”

“Of course, the sun! It’s brighter here and– _ack_!” Kuroo positively screeched as a stream of freezing water hit his body.

Laughter rang in the air and Kuroo found Daichi hunched over in near tears. To his left Asumi and Ryuki had come from hiding, both of them holding onto the watering hose. They had matching devious smiles on their faces.

“Betrayed! By my own _sisters_ –” Kuroo cried, sinking to the ground in mock-pity.

Daichi’s laughter was full now, open and loud, "They're not your sisters."

"They call me nii-chan!"

Daichi continued to laugh, taking a sit on the ground next to Kuroo.

Kuroo shook his head, placing his hand on his heart, “You’re a bad influence, Sa’amura.”

“This was your influence, not mine.”

“Ah, so they’re learning all my best traits.”

“You mean your bad habits.”

He gwuaffed, turning on Daichi quickly, "Excuse _you–_ "

  
_You build me up_  
_Make me what I never was_  
_You build me up_  
_From nothing into something_  
_Something from the dust_

(5)

Now. Back to his current predicament. He’d gathered up all his courage and tried to build his confidence up enough to tell Daichi just those few little words—

I like you.

Kuroo’s plan to confess, finally and actually, to one Sawamura Daichi would have fallen into place if said human had been in Tokyo while his confidence was still reigning. But come Wednesday evening, Kuroo began to doubt himself. The plan was for Sawamura to be in Tokyo on Monday, visiting his cousin Eijun first, before spending the rest of the week with Kuroo and some of their other collective friends. But Daichi ended up having to go into one of the labs on his campus to help some first year students by request of his professor.

Four times he’d tried, and while success seemed to favor him in most areas, such as volleyball and schooling–not without hard work and effort of course–but the universe really wanted to tear him down each time.

He wanted this so badly he could almost taste it on his tongue but he knew if he didn’t say it now, say it this time, then he didn’t think he’d be able to muster up the courage again. Not after it seemed like each sign in the universe was telling him no.

And here Kuroo was now, days after his early morning talk with Akaashi and some impromptu encouragement from Iwaizumi, he stood at the train station waiting for Daichi. 

He turned to his phone, heavy in his cold hands, looking at the last message from Daichi:

**Crow Dad**  
_On the train! I’ll be there in ten mins. Movie and takeout tonight?_

Kuroo smiled looking at it. He’s sent a quick yes, and that it would be Daichi’s movie pick. He moved straight to his previous conversations; Bokuto was back at the apartment by now packing to visit Semi for the break, and Kenma was at that gaming convention but maybe he’d answer back

**Me**  
_why did i tell akaashi and bo that i’d do this by tomorrow_

_i set myself up for failure_

_i don’t think i can do this_

He received a reply almost immediately.

**KenmaKat**  
_you better._

**Me**  
_it’s gonna mess everything up_

**KenmaKat**  
_“everything” being your mutual pining._

Kuroo scoffed, shaking his head before receiving another message.

**KenmaKat**  
_that needs to be ruined. then you can do all the gross coupley things_

**Me**  
_like you and shrimpy_

**KenmaKat**  
......

**me**  
_sorry sorry. i’m stressed_

**KenmaKat**  
_breath for a second. or two. but i have to go, the last event it starting_

_and good luck. don't die or anything_

**me**  
_thx kenma, so kind_

Kenma sent a brief thumbs up, and by the time Kuroo looked up, the next train was pulling in. He shoved his hands into the pockets of dark track pants, willing his breathing to slow down. He’d waited long enough, and really the universe couldn’t hate him that much. What was the saying, fifth times the charm? Or five by five for things are good and clear?

 _Universe are you listening?_ He thought, looking up to the darkening sky. _I’d really like you to fuck off just this one time. Maybe just leave us alone–_

“Looking for stars?” a lovely baritone called him out of his daze, and when he turned Daichi stood there watching him with a look only to be described as fond. He was dressed in a white sweater, covered in a dark jacket, and a red scarf pulled around his neck. A bag was slung over his shoulder, and his hands were tucked into his pockets.

“We both know the stars are out of reach here,” he drawled, setting his body straight to meet the other man. “Sa’amura.”

Daichi’s returning smile was nothing short of teasing, “City boy. How long has it been since you saw a star?”

 _Well, you’re standing here, so not long,_ he thought.

“Ages, Sa’amura,” he said, “Take me back to Miyagi, since you’re hoarding all of them.”  
They began walking as Kuroo asked about Daichi’s cousin, and the baseball game.

“It was just a practice game, but it was good. Eijun really is something,” Daichi said, shaking his head. He pulled at the red scarf wrapped around his neck, tucking his hands into his jacket pockets. “He started dating that catcher too.”

Kuroo laughed, throwing his head back, “The same one you said he was going to get with in high-school?”

“Yup.”

Kuroo had met Daichi’s cousin a couple times, and knew he went to Chuo on a baseball scholarship. He was a year younger than Daichi, vibrant and excited about most things, an amazing baseball player according to Daichi, and several sports sources. He also looked up to Daichi with wonder, like most tended to after meeting the man.

They continued their walk, their shoulders brushing. The night wind had lulled but the cold it left behind seeped into their cheeks. 

Daichi is talking about the practice game, and then about Ryuki and Asumi and how they can’t wait for Kuroo to visit again. Then Nana, and how she’d told Daichi to tell Kuroo that “he shouldn’t wait around to do the things he wants to do.”

  
“Is there something you’re wanting to do?” Daichi asked, looking to Kuroo. And fuck, it really is cold and the wind is cutting at their cheeks, and Daichi’s cheeks are a beautiful pink from the chill but he looks so pleased, so happy. He’s smiling, and it’s like the sun hasn’t left for the night because Daichi is standing right there, looking like _that_. He’s starting pulling at the skin of his bottom lip, tugging and Kuroo wants nothing more than to take those chapped and pink lips and warm them against his own.

Without much thought, he took Daichi’s gloved hand and pulled them to a stop.

“Kuroo?” He asked, solicitous. 

Deep brown eyes edged him to say what he was thinking, to just go for it, because he was here and nothing was stopping them. There were no teammates to interrupt, no urgent phone calls, or worried skype calls, or the sounds of sisters. Only them, and a passing, almost quite universe around them, allowing them to stop and breath.

_You don’t want to spend your whole life wondering, Tetsurou._

“Daichi, I really, really like you—,” he took a breath, holding onto Daichi’s hand, afraid he’d pull away only to lose him, “and, and I don’t know if I can keep watching you, being around you, without saying something. Because everyone is saying you feel the same, but I don’t know, and I’ve never been unsure of anything but this. And I think I really love you, and would love to hold your hand and probably do more than platonic dates, because you’re amazing, handsome, and you make me laugh and–”

“You silly cat,” Daichi said, stopping Kuroo’s rambling. He reached up to Kuroo’s face, placing gloved hands on his cheeks. “You silly, silly cat.”

“Is this an acceptance? Because I really can’t go through the Universe’s bullshit again. I mean I’ve tried for years now but you see how far that’s got us—“

His words were cut off by the warm press of chapped lips on his own, and then a soft whisper against them—

“I love you too.”

He was quick to cup Daichi’s face, and against the cold telling them to go inside because the apartment was fucking right there—he made for Daichi’s lips again because wow they always looked so plush and pink and now he gets to feel them with his own. And they’re warm, and Daichi’s nose is pressing against his own, and he could feel the heat of Daichi’s cheeks under his gloves. 

In that moment he wanted nothing more than just their space, just that moment with Tokyo’s crowds swarming around them and drifting like the rest of time. 

Daichi pulled his face back, noses just a breath apart, gaze heavy but bright, mischief climbing its way into his features. “Are you going to call me Daichi now?”

Warmth flooded to the back of Kuroo’s neck, and how could he ever say no to that beautiful face?

(Hint: _he can’t._ )

“Only if you call me Tetsurou,” he said with a smirk bordering on infectious grin. “Dai~chi.”

Said man hummed, leaning up to press those pink, pink lips to Kuroo’s cheek, “How about Tetsu?” said soft and whispered only for them to hear.

_Been trying so hard not to let it show_  
_But you got me feeling like_  
_I'm stepping on buildings, cars and boats_  
_I swear I could touch the sky_

_Oh oh oh_  
_I'm ten feet tall_  
_Oh oh oh_  
_I'm ten feet tall_

* * *

_“Flowering trees were special to van Gogh. They represented awakening and hope. He enjoyed them aesthetically and found joy in painting flowering trees.”_

**Author's Note:**

> :')) while i did listen to "ten feet tall" the entire time i was writing this, i also happened to have pirates of the caribbean (at worlds end) playing in the background... and it played at least 6 different times before i changed it to the first movie.
> 
> i feel like this took far too long for what it actually is, and i'm now *two* days behind on kurodai-midbday week but anyways.
> 
> hope y'all enjoyed!! 
> 
> i'm pretty active on tumblr and post about daichi a lot:
> 
> @spookysp-ace
> 
> and also recently, twitter, where i also post about daichi
> 
> @spacedaichi
> 
> feel free to chat with me or scream at me about kurodai :')) or daichi because he deserves all the goodness :'))


End file.
